Sell Now, or Rehab and Sell

[Jeffrey Thompson]

Looking for advice... I have been holding onto the starter home my wife and I bought back in 2006... even though we had bought and moved into another home in 2014.  Reason being... I was young and stupid and fell victim to predatory lending.  The value of the property was less than I owed.

I did some rehab and rented to wife's nephew.  I know what many of you will say... "you shouldn't rent to family."  And you're right.  Its just that the property was/is not in condition to rent to the average renter.

Long story short (too late for that, I know), nephew has moved out and I'm ready to sell.  I had an agent take a look and give me her "estimates."  She says I could sell it now, as-is, for $100k (which seems low considering the current market and that the kitchen and bathroom are newly remodeled), or about $25k of rehab would allow me to sell at approximately $175k.  I'm brand new to investing and don't really intend to focus on flipping.  The time and money it would take to rehab sounds like a headache to me.  And who knows if I can still get $175k by the time the rehab is done?... Not to mention the cost of materials and high demand of contractors.

I'm leaning towards selling it now but would love input from the pros here.